Really nice, I zipped through 1-3, 4 took a couple of tries, and after numerous tries and being extremely close to winning, I gave up on level 5 
Yay with new update I can passed lv4. Gave up on lv5.
I wonder how you calculated “drift”
Drift is the angle of the rear wheels compared to the direction of travel.
The first level you only need PI/16 to get “drift”, however, as you go through the levels, you need a greater angle, by level 5 you need a PI/9 angle. Oh, and there is also a check to make sure you are going fast enough too. 
Made it to the 5th level I think. It was the one with a 1500 score limit.
thanks for the explanation :point:
Actually, that was the 6th level!
Made some more changes:
- There are now 10 levels.
- The track width changes between levels.
- Level 7 is now a snow track.
I think the transitioning between levels is now fairly smooth. Please let me know if you get to a level and feel like it was too much of a jump in difficultly.
Any other comments/suggestions are also most welcome.
http://www.java4k.com/index.php?action=games&method=view&gid=354
Many thanks again!
Got to the last level, but immediately gave up. Took me very many tries to beat level 9, but I eventually did it. The snow level was great. It was fun and awesome, but not very challenging, which was a nice change of pace. The only 2 things that really bothers me with is for one that the car’s abilities changes each level. It makes all the things you learned at the last level useless as they don’t work anymore. The second thing was most apparent on the last level: The car doesn’t run straight. On the last level, just holding the up arrow key makes your car make a sharp turn to the left. It was very difficult just getting the first turn right due to this, and considering the insane degree of drift needed for points, combined with the high speed of the car, the soap slippery road and the 1000 point requirement, it was pretty much impossible for me to do enough flawless drifts in a row for me, so I just gave up.
Very nice game though, especially in 4K!
After reviewing the last level, I agree. I’ve made the car too powerful with not enough traction. It’s not fun, it’s just annoying how it snaps into a spin so easily.
I also see your point that you need to relearn on each level. I need the user to gradually work up from a car that doesn’t drift much, to a car that does. However, when the user does get to that car (probably the black car on level 6), I think I need to stop modifying the car, and only modify the track, points, and time limit to make it harder.
Excellent feedback! Thank you! It’s funny how when you program and play the game so many times, you loose track of what you think works and what doesn’t.
All issues should now be fixed:
- Now has 12 levels.
- No more impossible to control cars. Once you get to level 6, the cars handling doesn’t change much.
- Now has some dirt tracks (as well as asphalt and snow).
http://www.java4k.com/index.php?action=games&method=view&gid=354
As always, comments most welcome.
Thanks!
Just for fun, I made an HTML5 version! ;D
I stuck my 4K code into a GWT project, fixed up the game loop to be single threaded, changed the gfx calls to use GWT, and boom, GWT made me an HTML5 version! :o
The only other difference is there is no dashed line support in HTML5, so I replaced the centre line with some track texture (as I wasn’t worrying about the 4k limit). The actual Javascript compiled out to only 50K, so that’s not too bad.
You can see it in action here http://www.brasurf.com.au/DriftDriver/
This, my friends, I think is the future! (well, for small online games anyway).
Game is totally cool!
Unfortunately the HTML5 locked up Firefox for me - thats not unusual tho
Cheers,
Kev
Applet = 4K, Javascript = 50K…Java wins
Both run fine for me in Google Chrome. However, I could never beat level 6 :S
Level 6 was doable after I stopped always pushing down the gas pedal when drifting, level 7 with 1000 points needed and driving on ice got a bit too ridiculous.
One comment, it seems like the area you’re allowed to drive on before losing your points when drifting always is the same even though the track gets smaller. That causes confusion as you don’t know exactly when to stop drifting due to getting to close to the secret border.
Mike
Stuck at level 10 here… >_<
Great game as always from you.
Really nice feel, pretty much like last years contribution, but much more fun gameplay!
Unfortunately I can not start level 4 because of this:
Exception in thread "Thread-16" java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space at java.awt.image.DataBufferInt.<init>(DataBufferInt.java:41) at java.awt.image.Raster.createPackedRaster(Raster.java:458) at java.awt.image.DirectColorModel.createCompatibleWritableRaster(DirectColorModel.java:1015) at java.awt.image.BufferedImage.<init>(BufferedImage.java:315) at A.run(Unknown Source) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:680)
This is on OS X Lion, Java 1.6 :’(
Couldn’t use handbreak either on OS X. HTML5 seems to work fine though.
Will play that now! 
Pretty fun! Got to level 5 and tried it about 3 times and gave up.
I am always bad at driving games.
No secret border. If all 4 wheels go off the track, then your score for that drift is lost. So you have to be more precise when the track gets narrow.
The game does use a lot of memory (I create 2 2200x2200 RGB BufferedImages), however, it creates them on every level and throws away the old ones, so I’m at a loss as to why it would make it all the way to level 4 and then crash. Might look at putting in some memory flags on the Java4K sites applet code if needed.
Now changed the handbreak to use the Shift key.
I made levels 9 and 10 a little easier. Game is now submitted!
http://www.java4k.com/index.php?action=games&method=view&gid=354
Thank you all so much for the excellent feedback. And good luck everyone in the competition! I always really enjoy programming for the Java4K comp. 8)
Good and quite original driving game. The gameplay improved a lot since the first version it was possible to test. It is now a real pleasure to control the car.
On level 5, I scored exactly 600/600, and it was not enough to finish the level. At least 601 seemed to be necessary.